1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the methods for remotely managing financial expenditures by employees, and more particularly to the methods for coordinating product and service demonstrations.
2. Description of the Related Art
A number of companies such as product manufacturers and product distributors use event coordinators to coordinate product demonstrations in public areas such as retail stores. In a typical scenario, the event coordinator directs event operators to buy the demonstration products from retail stores and distribute or demonstrate the products within the retail stores on a given date for a given time duration. The manufacturer or the event coordinator may specify the location and time of the demonstration event. For example, a cooking utensil manufacturer asks an event coordinator to coordinate an event demonstrating its cooking utensils. The event coordinator then directs event operators to go to a retail store, purchase the cooking utensils, purchase food, and present a food preparation demonstration in the retail store with the purchased cooking utensils and food. Typically the event operator sets up a booth with promotional items and advertisements, so that the event operator can introduce and promote the products. Often the event operator distributes products to customers of the retail store at a reduced price or free of charge.
The event operator is usually an employee of an agency contracted by the event coordinator. In another embodiment, the event operator is an employee of the event coordinator. The term “employee” is used in the present application to include independent contractors. In typical situations, the event coordinator will utilize an agency's event operators, because the event coordinator does not have its own employees physically located in the geographical locale in which the products are to be demonstrated. The event operators are provided funds, typically in the form of cash or checks, for buying the demonstration products. The event coordinator must rely on the trustworthiness of agencies to direct employees to the demonstration locations. The event coordinator must also rely on the trustworthiness of the event operators to use the provided funds to purchase the demonstration products, instead of using the funds for their personal purposes. The event coordinator must further rely on the trustworthiness of the event operators to work in the specified demonstration location on the specified date for the specified time period.
The event operators need to be provided funds to purchase necessary items in order to conduct the demonstration event. Credit cards can be used to make purchases without the use of cash. However, many conventional credit cards do not deduct the purchase amount from a sum of money held by the consumers. Rather, credit cards in effect provide a loan to the consumer to be paid back at a later time. If credit cards are provided to the event operators to make required purchases, the event coordinator cannot control the amount and nature of purchases. Debit cards allow a consumer to make a purchase for products without the use of cash by directly deducting the purchase amount from the consumer's bank account. Debit cards also provide a similar advantage to credit cards in that a record of purchases can be tracked according to usage of the card. With cash purchases, only the consumer can keep track of the purchases by collecting receipts.